Wow. I am so disgustingly blessed. There is so much I want to write about right now, so this could be a long post.
Let's see, I haven't even blogged about last weekend yet.
Here is the abridged version:
Friday night was going to a classy but hip wine bar down near USC's campus with my roommates which was a lot of fun, then IMAX the Dark Knight on Saturday morning which was absolutely mind-blowingly awesome, even the Watchmen trailer was freaking sweet (crew just finished the teaser website for the watchmen movie, and it's sweet, check it out). Let's see, then Saturday night was the GLOW festival celebrating the Grunion Run at Santa Monica. I'll tell you more about it if you ask, here's a picture of one of the cool art installations. This was a giant fan of water being sprayed like 5 stories high with colorful animations projected onto it.
Monday night Amy and I went to the Arclight in Hollywood to see Mamma Mia. The movie was ridiculous, but of course I loved it. Meryl Streep was awesome and looked like she was having a blast. Amanda Seyfried might just make the list of "My Girls," alongside Idina, Amy Adams, Ashley Brown, Lindsay Lohan (pre-fall), Shoshana Bean and Rachel McAdams. (If anyone remembers any other women I have mentioned as being my girl, please remind me. I think I've remembered them all though.) Amanda Seyfried has the best voice of anyone in the movie, and her acoustic version of "Thank You for the Music" she sings over the final credits is absolutely amazing.
Pierce Brosnan's singing voice isn't perfect, but its very interesting and I don't mind hearing it. He is, however, not all that comfortable looking singing on screen, and when he broke out in song in the movie almost everyone in the theater started to laugh. Still, the movie was definitely a lot of fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but is serious when it needs to be. Ian downloaded the soundtrack and gave it to me. It's been pretty awesome.
The arclight was an amazing place to see a movie, and bills itself as the theater for movie lovers. The theater is all assigned seating, the seats are extra wide, the arm rests are double-wide, and there is no late seating. Pretty sweet. There also weren't really any bad seats in the theater. Outside of the theater was the real Bat-pod, on display and it was pretty cool. Inside the lobby was an actual Batman costume from the Dark Knight, 5 clown masks from the bank robbery scene, and a joker costume, as well. Now that stuff was awesome. They also had some of the costumes from Mamma Mia on display, too, which had lots of sequins on them.
Pierce Brosnan's singing voice isn't perfect, but its very interesting and I don't mind hearing it. He is, however, not all that comfortable looking singing on screen, and when he broke out in song in the movie almost everyone in the theater started to laugh. Still, the movie was definitely a lot of fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously, but is serious when it needs to be. Ian downloaded the soundtrack and gave it to me. It's been pretty awesome.
The arclight was an amazing place to see a movie, and bills itself as the theater for movie lovers. The theater is all assigned seating, the seats are extra wide, the arm rests are double-wide, and there is no late seating. Pretty sweet. There also weren't really any bad seats in the theater. Outside of the theater was the real Bat-pod, on display and it was pretty cool. Inside the lobby was an actual Batman costume from the Dark Knight, 5 clown masks from the bank robbery scene, and a joker costume, as well. Now that stuff was awesome. They also had some of the costumes from Mamma Mia on display, too, which had lots of sequins on them.
Let's see, the rest of the week was fairly low-key. I did, however, come up with a design for my new portfolio website. I've spent a lot of my free time this week and weekend working on the site, and I'm super excited about it. I really do think that it's shaping up to not only be a solid reflection of my work, but a great reflection of my personality and who I am in general, as well. The site is definitely not done yet, and you can't actually view any of my projects besides their preview boxes. I'll be working on the full project views soon.
Even so, feel free to check out what I have up at randlev.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback and criticism. Good or bad.
Anyway, this weekend has been very awesome. Friday night was a nice relaxing evening, after some In-N-Out, Garrett and I watched the movie Walk Hard. It was very funny and John C. Reilly was pretty outstanding in it. He's got a lot of talent. I wonder why he really hasn't done anything serious since his oscar nomination for Chicago?
Anyway, Saturday afternoon, Ian and Tegan and I went cruising up highway 1 into Malibu. We stopped and ate lunch by the lagoon and then walked along the beach and watched all the surfers catching waves near the pier. Our day was absolutely made when we saw a dog in a wetsuit surfing with his owner. The dog was really good and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Awesome.
Even so, feel free to check out what I have up at randlev.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback and criticism. Good or bad.
Anyway, this weekend has been very awesome. Friday night was a nice relaxing evening, after some In-N-Out, Garrett and I watched the movie Walk Hard. It was very funny and John C. Reilly was pretty outstanding in it. He's got a lot of talent. I wonder why he really hasn't done anything serious since his oscar nomination for Chicago?
Anyway, Saturday afternoon, Ian and Tegan and I went cruising up highway 1 into Malibu. We stopped and ate lunch by the lagoon and then walked along the beach and watched all the surfers catching waves near the pier. Our day was absolutely made when we saw a dog in a wetsuit surfing with his owner. The dog was really good and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Awesome.
We walked back to the car and kept driving north on the Pacific Coast Highway out of the Malibu city limits past Pepperdine University right above the ocean. It was pretty awesome driving along the ocean with the windows down, the sunroof open, and the new Jason Mraz album blasting on the stereo. We were living pretty large. Soon we started passing these huge houses with ornate gates at the driveways right on the ocean. There has to be seriously famous and seriously rich people owning those places, they were crazy.
We eventually decided to stop at this beach that looked cool called Leo Carillo beach, I think, and it turned out to be amazing. There were these huge rock formations along the ocean creating these different little coves and private beaches. There were huge mountains across the highway behind us, and the rocky beach made it feel like we were somewhere like Hawaii or Greece. Since I had recently seen the movie, I did some Mamma Mia "The Winner Takes it All" posing on the rocks, and I think Tegan got a few good pictures. Don't worry, I'll post more pictures from all of this stuff on facebook so you guys can see how cool it was. My facebook break ends tomorrow morning, so maybe tomorrow night I'll load some pics up. (My facebook break has been awesome, and I think from now on I'll only check it when A. I need to to find information of someone's, or B. When I receive an email notification.)
After taking pictures we all got in the car and headed back down the PCH through Malibu back to Westwood, while we may or may not have been listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. Last night I had a lot of fun going to the Bigfoot Lodge, a log cabin-themed bar up in Los Feliz (pronounced Loas Fee-liss) to celebrate my coworker, Dave Felton's birthday. It was a lot of fun, even my supervisor, Anette came. Dave Devine, however, was a no show. On friday at work I found out he has a pool at his house and something called an aquathrone. If he was social, maybe he'd invite people over. It's weird to think of Dave as a real grown-up, but I guess if he has his own pool then he must be.
Anyway, we were at the bar just a few minutes too late to catch the subway back to Wilshire and hop on the bus back to Westwood, so Ian and I sort of got stuck in Hollywood and just ended up having to split a $30 taxi. It was stupid and expensive, but whatever.
This morning I pushed myself in an intense run through campus and at the track. It was great, and I'm definitely loving running so often out here. I really am starting to feel like I'm in better shape and able to run further often.
My afternoon and evening was an absolutely amazing cap to my weekend. I took the bus downtown with my D50 camera, and snapped a few shots of Broadway as I walked down to the Mayan. Broadway on Sunday afternoon is definitely a trip and a side of Los Angeles you don't really ever get to see or imagine, with the lobbies of all of these old movie palaces sort of depressingly turned into jewelry stores and plenty of storefronts of people selling all kinds of knick-knacks, clothes, toys, and whatnot. Still, its really interesting and I love walking down it every Sunday on my way to church.
At church, it was definitely my best overall Mosaic experience yet. I was there early enough to help with plenty of set-up, and had a lot of fun just hanging out with everybody else on the connections team and getting to know some new people. I think I finally am starting to find where I fit there. Again I was on sample duty and handed out dixie cups of Raspberry Mocha to people who looked alone and struck up conversation with them. One guy, Eugene, was interested in finding out how he could get involved and meet people, so I told him about the connections team and stuff and pointed him toward people who could give him more information. Another guy, John, had an amazing amount of energy, and I had a lot of fun talking to he and his even more energetic girlfriend, Nicole. The people at Mosaic really are awesome, and getting to know more and more of them all the time is really showing me how blessed and lucky I am to be a part of that community.
It was almost scary how much the message met me with exactly what I'm dealing with right now and where my heart is and what I'm trying to work on. It was absolutely crazy to be spoken to so personally and I was just struck by how awesome God is. And Erwin McManus didn't even deliver this message.
It turns out this girl named Jess lives in Westwood, too, and she said she was happy to give me a ride home, so I opted to stick around to volunteer and usher for both services, which is something I've never done before but have always wanted to do, especially for the added time of interacting with other people and other volunteers. After the 8 o'clock gathering started, Eddie and Liz and I went across the street to the new Jamaican Restaurant that Mosaic is trying to help out across the street and it was delicious. My jerk chicken had major kick to it, but it was delicious. The service and food was great, and our waiter absolutely could not have been nicer. I'll think we'll be going back every Sunday night now, too, which I could get used to.
After tearing down everything in the Mayan and packing up, Jess and I went out to her car, and I was surprised to see a Pitt sticker on the rear windshield. It turns out she went to Pitt on a softball scholarship. Small world, eh? Well, things got even crazier when she mentioned she used to work at Disney in advertising. She told me it was a blast working there, and that she loved the people she worked with. Although she recently switched jobs, she told me she knows a lot of great people there, and that I should give her my resume and she'll let me know of any internship opportunities. She and I will definitely be talking more in the coming weeks (and hopefully I can get a few more rides home) and I might just have to see what connections I can work.
I don't know, would I come back to LA soon if it meant working at Disney and spending another quarter surrounded by everything and everyone I love at Mosaic? Maybe...just maybe.
Am I beginning to be bitten by the LA bug that I never thought I'd be bitten by. After doubting it for so long, could I really be "an LA guy?" Maybe...just maybe.
Who knows. Ideally it would be awesome to work for Disney in New York, especially to work at Yellow Shoes Creative Group, the branch of Disney Parks and Resorts that does all the advertising for the theme parks and cruise line, which I think has an office in New York.
We'll see. I don't know what the future holds for me. All I know is right now I am feeling very much in love with Los Angeles, and am feeling so disgustingly blessed by God. Like I said, I definitely don't deserve this. He is awesome.
I really do miss everyone, and I am very much looking forward to Fall quarter. It will be amazing. Until then, its looking like summer quarter has not and will not let me down in terms of growth, challenges, and overall awesomeness.
I hope everyone has an amazing week.
Wow, this post was like a novel.
Much love.
Anyway, we were at the bar just a few minutes too late to catch the subway back to Wilshire and hop on the bus back to Westwood, so Ian and I sort of got stuck in Hollywood and just ended up having to split a $30 taxi. It was stupid and expensive, but whatever.
This morning I pushed myself in an intense run through campus and at the track. It was great, and I'm definitely loving running so often out here. I really am starting to feel like I'm in better shape and able to run further often.
My afternoon and evening was an absolutely amazing cap to my weekend. I took the bus downtown with my D50 camera, and snapped a few shots of Broadway as I walked down to the Mayan. Broadway on Sunday afternoon is definitely a trip and a side of Los Angeles you don't really ever get to see or imagine, with the lobbies of all of these old movie palaces sort of depressingly turned into jewelry stores and plenty of storefronts of people selling all kinds of knick-knacks, clothes, toys, and whatnot. Still, its really interesting and I love walking down it every Sunday on my way to church.
At church, it was definitely my best overall Mosaic experience yet. I was there early enough to help with plenty of set-up, and had a lot of fun just hanging out with everybody else on the connections team and getting to know some new people. I think I finally am starting to find where I fit there. Again I was on sample duty and handed out dixie cups of Raspberry Mocha to people who looked alone and struck up conversation with them. One guy, Eugene, was interested in finding out how he could get involved and meet people, so I told him about the connections team and stuff and pointed him toward people who could give him more information. Another guy, John, had an amazing amount of energy, and I had a lot of fun talking to he and his even more energetic girlfriend, Nicole. The people at Mosaic really are awesome, and getting to know more and more of them all the time is really showing me how blessed and lucky I am to be a part of that community.
It was almost scary how much the message met me with exactly what I'm dealing with right now and where my heart is and what I'm trying to work on. It was absolutely crazy to be spoken to so personally and I was just struck by how awesome God is. And Erwin McManus didn't even deliver this message.
It turns out this girl named Jess lives in Westwood, too, and she said she was happy to give me a ride home, so I opted to stick around to volunteer and usher for both services, which is something I've never done before but have always wanted to do, especially for the added time of interacting with other people and other volunteers. After the 8 o'clock gathering started, Eddie and Liz and I went across the street to the new Jamaican Restaurant that Mosaic is trying to help out across the street and it was delicious. My jerk chicken had major kick to it, but it was delicious. The service and food was great, and our waiter absolutely could not have been nicer. I'll think we'll be going back every Sunday night now, too, which I could get used to.
After tearing down everything in the Mayan and packing up, Jess and I went out to her car, and I was surprised to see a Pitt sticker on the rear windshield. It turns out she went to Pitt on a softball scholarship. Small world, eh? Well, things got even crazier when she mentioned she used to work at Disney in advertising. She told me it was a blast working there, and that she loved the people she worked with. Although she recently switched jobs, she told me she knows a lot of great people there, and that I should give her my resume and she'll let me know of any internship opportunities. She and I will definitely be talking more in the coming weeks (and hopefully I can get a few more rides home) and I might just have to see what connections I can work.
I don't know, would I come back to LA soon if it meant working at Disney and spending another quarter surrounded by everything and everyone I love at Mosaic? Maybe...just maybe.
Am I beginning to be bitten by the LA bug that I never thought I'd be bitten by. After doubting it for so long, could I really be "an LA guy?" Maybe...just maybe.
Who knows. Ideally it would be awesome to work for Disney in New York, especially to work at Yellow Shoes Creative Group, the branch of Disney Parks and Resorts that does all the advertising for the theme parks and cruise line, which I think has an office in New York.
We'll see. I don't know what the future holds for me. All I know is right now I am feeling very much in love with Los Angeles, and am feeling so disgustingly blessed by God. Like I said, I definitely don't deserve this. He is awesome.
I really do miss everyone, and I am very much looking forward to Fall quarter. It will be amazing. Until then, its looking like summer quarter has not and will not let me down in terms of growth, challenges, and overall awesomeness.
I hope everyone has an amazing week.
Wow, this post was like a novel.
Much love.
1 comment:
Don't forget Mrs. Esposito!
Post a Comment